MovePlanMoving house timeline: week by week
Eight weeks is enough if the right things happen in the right order. Here's the sequence, and the three tasks whose lead times decide everything else.
Moving badly and moving well involve almost identical amounts of work. The difference is sequencing — a handful of tasks have long lead times, and if they're started late everything downstream compresses into the final week alongside the packing.
The three that decide your move: broadband installation, removal firm availability, and time off work. All three are booked against someone else's calendar, and all three get harder the longer you wait.
Eight weeks before
8 weeks before
- 8 weeksGet quotes from at least three removal companies
- 8 weeksStart decluttering — sell, donate, or bin what you won't take
Get three quotes rather than one, and get them in writing. Prices vary more than people expect for the same job, and the cheapest quote is often cheapest because it assumes fewer hours or fewer people than your move actually needs — ask what happens if it overruns.
Declutter now rather than later for a straightforwardly financial reason: you are about to pay someone to transport all of it. An afternoon spent deciding what isn't coming reduces the quote and the unpacking.
Six weeks before
6 weeks before
- 6 weeksNotify your children's school of the move, if applicable
If you're changing schools rather than just moving house, start earlier than this — admissions run to their own timetable and places at a specific school are not guaranteed by living nearby.
Four weeks before
4 weeks before
- 4 weeksSet up Royal Mail redirection to your new address
- 4 weeksNotify your bank, insurers, and any subscriptions of your new address
- 4 weeksBook time off work for moving day, if needed
This is the admin block, and it's the one that expands to fill whatever time you give it. Draft one address-change message and reuse it everywhere rather than composing each from scratch — our change of address checklist has a template you can copy.
Two weeks before
2 weeks before
- 2 weeksConfirm your removal company booking in writing
- 2 weeksStart packing everything you won't need before the move
Confirm in writing, not by phone. A verbal confirmation is worth very little if a firm double-books, and this is exactly the point in the process where you have no slack to absorb that.
The final week
1 week before
- 1 weekConfirm transfer and final-read dates with gas, electric, water and broadband suppliers
- 1 weekPack an essentials box — kettle, chargers, toiletries, a change of clothes
The essentials box sounds like a nice-to-have and is not. On the first night you will be tired, surrounded by identical boxes, and looking for the kettle, a phone charger, the toilet roll and something to sleep in. Pack them together and label the box unmistakably.
Moving day
Moving day
- On the dayTake meter readings at your old property before you leave
- On the dayCollect keys and take meter readings at your new property
Photograph every reading with the date visible. It takes ten seconds and settles almost every billing dispute that follows a move — and billing disputes after a move are common enough that you should assume you'll have one.
The fortnight after
After the move
- AfterRegister with a GP surgery near your new address
- AfterUpdate your driving licence and vehicle registration with the DVLA
- AfterRegister to vote at your new address
- AfterUpdate your TV Licence address
- AfterRegister for council tax at the new address, and de-register at the old one
These are the ones with legal weight — the DVLA items carry a fine of up to £1,000 — and they're also the ones most likely to be forgotten, because by this point you've moved and it feels finished. Put them in the calendar before moving day, not after.
Working to your own dates
The awkward part of any timeline written as "six weeks before" is that you have to keep converting it into real dates while thinking about other things. MovePlan does that conversion: you enter your move date, and every task above appears against the actual day it falls on, with tick-off progress that saves.
It also drafts six address-change letters filled in with your name, both addresses and your date — bank, insurer, DVLA, TV Licensing, GP and electoral roll. £14.99 once, for 90 days.
See your plan with real dates
The full checklist dated from an example move, plus sample letters.
See a sample plan